The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 8

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 8

Let us turn to a sweeter subject, and gossip about St. Chad's Well, the

site of which is now occupied by the Metropolitan Railway at King's

Cross. St. Chad is a saint in the English calendar, and might have been

a distinguished temperance leader, if the number of wells dedicated

to him, is any criterion. He lived in the seventh century, and was

educated at Lindisfarne (at least so Bede says), and afterwards became

Bishop of Lichfield, and, at his death, his soul is said to have been

accompanied to heaven by angels and sweet music.

 

A good modern account is given in Hone's "Every Day Book," vol. i.

pp. 323, 4, 5, which, as it was taken from actual observation about

fifty years since, may well be transcribed. Speaking of the aforesaid

dust-heap he says:--

 

"Opposite to this unsightly site, and on the right hand side of

the road, is an anglewise faded inscription--

 

[Illustration: ST. CHAD'S WELL.]

 

"It stands, or rather dejects, over an elderly pair of wooden

gates, one whereof opens on a scene which the unaccustomed eye

may take for the pleasure-ground of Giant Despair. Trees stand

as if made not to vegetate, clipped hedges seem unwilling to

decline, and nameless weeds straggle weakly upon unlimited

borders. If you look upwards you perceive, painted on an octagon

board, 'Health restored and preserved.' Further on, towards

the left, stands a low, old-fashioned, comfortable-looking,

large-windowed dwelling, and, ten to one, but there also stands

at the open door, an ancient ailing female, in a black bonnet,

a clean, coloured cotton gown, and a check apron, her silver

hair only in part tucked beneath the narrow border of a frilled

cap, with a sedate and patient, yet somewhat inquiring look. She

gratuitously tells you that 'the gardens' of 'St. Chad's Well'

are for 'Circulation' by paying for the waters, of which you may

drink as much, or as little, or nothing, as you please, at one

guinea per year, 9s. 6d. quarterly, 4s. 6d. monthly, or 1s. 6d.

weekly. You qualify for a single visit by paying sixpence, and a

large glass tumbler, full of warm water, is handed to you. As a

stranger, you are told, that 'St. Chad's Well was famous at one

time.'

 

"Should you be inquisitive, the dame will instruct you, with

an earnest eye, that 'people are not what they were,' 'things

are not as they used to be,' and she 'can't tell what'll happen

next.' Oracles have not ceased. While drinking St. Chad's water,

you observe an immense copper, into which it is poured, wherein

it is heated to due efficacy, and from whence it is drawn by

a cock, into glasses. You also remark, hanging on the wall, a

'tribute of gratitude,' versified, and inscribed on vellum,

beneath a pane of glass stained by the hand of time, and let

into a black frame. This is an effusion for value received

from St. Chad's invaluable water. But, above all, there is a

full-sized portrait in oil, of a stout, comely personage, with

a ruddy countenance, in a coat or cloak, supposed scarlet, a

laced cravat falling down the breast, and a small red nightcap

carelessly placed on the head, conveying the idea that it was

painted for the likeness of some opulent butcher, who flourished

in the reign of Queen Anne. Ask the dame about it, and she

refers you to 'Rhone.'[20] This is a tall old man, who would

be taller if he were not bent by years. 'I am ninety-four,' he

will tell you, 'this present year of our Lord, one thousand,

eight hundred, and twenty-five.' All that he has to communicate

concerning the portrait is, 'I have heard say it is the portrait

of St. Chad.' Should you venture to differ, he adds, 'this is

the opinion of most people who come here.' You may gather that

it is his own undoubted belief.

 

"On pacing the garden alleys, and peeping at the places of

retirement, you imagine the whole may have been improved and

beautified, for the last time, by some countryman of William

III., who came over and died in the same year with that king,

and whose works here, in wood and box, have been following him

piecemeal ever since.

 

"St. Chad's Well is scarcely known in the neighbourhood save by

its sign-board of invitation and forbidding externals;... it

is haunted, not frequented. A few years, and it will be with

its waters, as with the water of St. Pancras' Well, which is

enclosed in the garden of a private house, near old St. Pancras

Churchyard."

 

But, although the prophecy in "Hone" was destined to be fulfilled, yet

it was twelve years before it came about, and it was not until

September 14, 1837, that Messrs. Warlters and Co. sold, at Garraway's

Coffee House, Change Alley, Cornhill, the "valuable Copyhold Property,

situate in Gray's Inn Lane, near King's Cross, Battle Bridge," which

consisted of "The well-known and valuable Premises, Dwelling-house,

Large Garden, and Offices, with the very celebrated Spring of Saline

Water called St. Chad's Well, which, in proper hands, would produce

an inexhaustible Revenue, as its qualities are allowed by the first

Physicians to be unequalled."

 

[Illustration: ST. CHAD'S WELL.]

 

It was a good sized piece of ground; in shape of a somewhat irregular

triangle, of which the base measured about 200 feet, and from apex to

base 95 feet. It was Copyhold. The vendor was not to be asked for a

title prior to 1793, and it was held of the Manor of _Cantlowes_ or

_Cantlers_, subject to a small fine, certain, of 6s. 8d., on death

or alienation, and to a Quit Rent of 5d. per annum. We should say,

nowadays, that the assessment was very small, as, including the large

gardens, both back and front, the whole was only valued, including the

_Saline Spring_, at £81 10s. per annum, of which £21 10s. was let off,

but which formed but a small portion of the property.

 

What would not the waters of St. Chad's Well cure? Really I think

the proprietor hardly knew himself, for a handbill I have before me

commences--"The celebrity of these waters being confined chiefly to its

own immediate vicinity for a number of years; the present proprietor

has thought proper to give more extensive publicity to the existence of

a nostrum provided by Nature, through Divine Providence, approaching

nearest that great desideratum of scientific men and mankind in

general, throughout all ages; namely, an UNIVERSAL MEDICINE.... The

many cures yearly performed by these waters does not come within the

limits of a handbill, but, suffice it to say, that here, upon trial,

the sufferer finds a speedy and sure relief from INDIGESTION and its

train, HABITUAL COSTIVENESS, the extensive range of LIVER COMPLAINTS,

DROPSY in its early stages, GLANDULAR OBSTRUCTIONS, and that bane of

life, SCROPHULA; for ERUPTIONS ON THE FACE OR SKIN its almost immediate

efficacy needs but a trial." This wonderful water, with use of garden,

was then, say 1835, supposed to be worth to the sufferer £1 per annum,

or threepence a visit, or you might have it supplied at eightpence per

gallon.

 

And yet it seems only to have been a mild aperient, and rather dear

at the price. In the _Mirror_ of April 13, 1833, Mr. Booth, Professor

of Chemistry, professed to give an analysis of the "Mineral Waters in

the neighbourhood of London," and he thus writes of St. Chad's Well:

"It is aperient, and is yet much resorted to by the poorer classes of

the metropolis, with whom it enjoys considerable reputation. From an

examination, I find it to be a strong solution of sulphate of soda and

sulphate of magnesia"--but he does not favour us with a quantitative

analysis.

 

Neither does the proprietor, one Wm. Lucas, who not only propounded

the handbill from which I have quoted, but published a pamphlet on

the healing virtues of the spring, and he also adds to Mr. Booth's

qualitative analysis, "a small quantity of Iron, which is held in

Solution by Carbonic Acid."

 

"The Well from which the Waters are supplied, is excluded from the

external air; the Water when freshly drawn is perfectly clear and

pellucid, and sparkles when poured into a glass; to the taste it is

slightly bitter, not sufficiently so to render it disagreeable; indeed,

Persons often think it so palatable as to take it at the table for a

common beverage."

 

This, however, is slightly at variance with the following, "As a

Purgative, more so than could be inferred from their taste, a pint is

the ordinary dose for an Adult, which operates pleasantly, powerfully,

and speedily:" qualities which are scarcely desirable for a Table water.

 

That, at one time, this Well was in fashion, although in 1825 it was in

its decadence, I may quote from the pamphlet (which, however, must be

taken by the reader, _quantum valeat_):

 

"JONATHAN RHONE, who was Gardener and Waiter at these Wells

upwards of Sixty Years, says, that when he first came into

office at about the middle of the eighteenth Century, the Waters

were in great repute, and frequently were visited by eight or

nine hundred Persons in a morning: the charge for drinking the

Waters was Three pence each Person, and they were delivered at

the Pump Room for exportation, at the rate of Twenty-four pint

bottles, packed in hamper, for One Pound Cash."

 

[Footnote 18: See next page.]

 

[Footnote 19: See pages 41, 42.]

 

[Footnote 20: Rhone was an old waiter at the Well. See p. 51.]

 

[Illustration]